Assessment

Announcing the IGNITE! Grant Winners!

Successful projects funded through the IGNITE scheme are now underway. We had over 20 project applications put to the committee and after much deliberation projects were chosen for their innovation, scalability and alignment to the School’s Education Strategy. Here are the winners:

Enhancing Your Moodle 

  • Jennifer Jackson-Preece, European Institute
    • (Re)designing  Moodle courses EU450, EU457 and Eu458 to maximise their pedagogical aims and deliver with a more distinct look and feel with clear links to Mahara for professional skills development.

Online Blended Learning

  • Lourdes Hernandez-Martin, Language Centre
    • A multilingual platform of audio and audio-visual materials to develop students’ interactive aural skills and increase their language exposure.
  • Nancy Holman, Geography and Environment
    • Developing professional skills the use of Participatory Action Research to deliver a practice-based learning project which provides engagement, consultation and Research in Urban Geography and Planning, especially when partnering with organisations such as a local authority.
Innovation, by Boegh on Flickr

Innovation, by Boegh on Flickr (CC)

 Feedback and Assessment with Technology 

  • Edgar Whitley, Management
    • Developing a scalable feedback system that integrates with Moodle and works effectively for the three constituencies affected by feedback: students, faculty and professional service staff.

Gamification 

  • Jose Javier Olivas and Jessica Templeton, LSE100
    • Experiencing the Dynamics and Limitations of Market and Regulation through Gaming by incorporating game design mechanics and techniques aimed at encouraging knowledge, skills development, collaboration and discussions in reference to the academic literature.
  • Andrea Pia, Anthropology
    • The Long Day of Young Peng is a point and click serious game exploring key themes in the study of contemporary China through the eyes of a young Chinese Migrant.

Edtech: The student view on educational technology

Given the limited amount of innovative tools used in their studies, it is hard for students to actually know how technology could better their education.

Having reviewed all the interviews from our Student Voice project, we created a video highlighting a few of our key findings.

As the video suggests, a majority of students stated that PowerPoints are the main “technology” used in the classroom. Many added that, given the limited amount of innovative tools used in their studies, it was hard for them to actually know how technology could better their education.

That being said, students believed that technology – if used correctly – could challenge the current “one to many [educative] system”. The expression “one-to-many” refers to lectures where teachers talk and students listen, often giving the impression of a unidirectional information flow. Students stated that technology could be implemented to make lectures and classes more interactive, to foster teacher-students and student-student collaboration.

The video also suggests that students expect an increase in online pedagogical content. This includes more online courses and online exercises but also online exams. Students suggested that, to prepare them for the use of technology in their future career, more tasks should be carried out on line.

All findings are currently being written up and the full report will be available shortly!

The previous post can be found here

Learning Technology Ideas Exchange

Cultivating Innovation

Click to sign up to the Learning Technology Idea Exchange

“Learning Technology Ideas Exchange” is an opportunity to get inspired, meet colleagues, exchange ideas and discover ways to improve teaching and learning with technology!

Run as informal café-style presentations, LSE colleagues will share insight into technologies used for teaching and learning and explain the educational rationale behind their work. You will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss.

Posters from various LTI projects will be on display during lunch, which will be provided by LTI. Learning Technologists will be available to answer any questions throughout the event.

There will be a further opportunity to ask questions in a plenary before we wrap-up.

Sign up to the event via the training system (please note this is an event for LSE Staff only)

TimeProgramme Themes and presenters 
11.00 -11.10WelcomeTea and coffee provided
11.10 - 12.10Café 1Table 1 - e-assessment
* Sara Geneletti (Statistics)
* Elisabeth Grieger (Mathematics)
Table 2 - General Innovation
* Francesco Panizza, (Government)
* Kay Inckle (Sociology)
12.10 - 12.20LTI Update
12.20 - 13.00Lunch (provided)
13.00 - 14.00Café 2Table 1 - Students as Producers
* Jennifer Jackson-Preece (European Institute)
*Catherine Xiang (Language Centre)
Table 2 - e-assessment
* Edgar Whitley (Management)
* Lourdes Hernandez-Martin (Language Centre)
14.00 – 14.30PlenaryGroup discussion and questions
WhenMonday 23rd May
Time11am -3pm
LocationLower Ground of Parish Hall (PAR.LG.03)

Turn It In at LSE

Turn It In (TII) is the leading online service that provides originality checking of academic work, and also a range of functionality for feedback and peer review. In relation to originality checking, while the appropriate use of ideas and concepts is still best judged by an expert teacher, TII is the most efficient and effective tool to check student writing to make sure it has not been copied from another source.

LSE has been using TII to originality check the work of students via teachers and departmental staff logging into the TII website and uploading submitted assignments there.

TII integration with Moodle for originality checking

Learning Technology and Innovation (LTI), as part of their assessment and feedback with technology project, has reviewed the use of TII and implemented an integration with the School’s virtual learning environment Moodle in 2014/2015. This integration was a result of a number of different pilot scenarios that were reviewed and assessed.

At this point the integration for originality checking has been refined, tested and found to be robust and reliable. The LTI team has demonstrated it to representatives from almost every academic department at LSE. Feedback has been very positive, highlighting the efficiency and ease of access of originality reports the integration delivers.

Barring any unforeseen problems, LTI are confident the integration for originality checking can be rolled-out in Michaelmas Term 2016 so it can be used on every assignment submitted through Moodle. The official decision will be taken after the final review of feedback from the participating departments towards the end of the Summer Term and an announcement will be made after the Summer Term is concluded, well ahead of the ‘Moodle end of year arrangement’.

The Moodle/TII integration enables different settings to be applied to each assignment: for example, whether submitted work is stored to a repository so future work is checked against it, or to vary the baseline level of matched content that is deemed acceptable. This allows for a good degree of flexibility and for the integration to be configured to the requirements of different disciplines and assignment types.

Grading through Turn It In (GradeMark)

Turn It In also offers an in-depth set of functions for marking student work called GradeMark: efficient ways of applying course rubrics and standard marking comments of individual teachers across multiple assignments, thereby delivering richer feedback for students. GradeMark provides powerful functionality, but like all tools is best deployed when the user is comfortable and confident with it.

The LTI team is still working on enabling assignments to be marked through TII GradeMark and then have this grading information released to students via Moodle. A separate integration to achieve this is currently being tested, and any teachers who are interested in using it should contact lti.support@lse.ac.uk to agree an assignment where they can trial this.

Improving student writing

The availability of the TII service has generated a lively debate across higher education on whether it is a tool that students can use to improve their writing standards or if it provides an aid to those who want to cheat by massaging their plagiarism to an ‘acceptable’ level. By extension, opinions are formed on if students should see the originality scores TII assigns to their submissions; and if they should have the opportunity to revise and resubmit a piece of work if they can see that this score is not acceptable.

The common feeling from everyone involved in providing courses at LSE – both teachers and departmental staff – is that there needs to be a greater training provision if this service is something our students have available for their use.

This is something that the LTI team have noted in all the feedback they have received to this point, and they will be working with colleagues to try and create a solution that will enable TII at LSE to be as much a learning tool to improve writing as a quality assurance mechanism. Anyone interested in finding out more should contact lti.support@lse.ac.uk.

Want to know more?

The LTI team have been contacting Moodle users in each academic department to demonstrate the originality check integration, but if they have not been in touch with you yet or if you have any questions feel free to drop them a line! Please email lti.support@lse.ac.uk and LTI will be happy to provide more information.

Once Summer Term 2016 has concluded further information about the integration will be circulated to the teacher/editors for all LSE courses in Moodle.

Technology in Teaching and Learning: Newest Projects from LSE Staff

Games, revision podcasts and electronic feedback are the main themes of the latest projects funded by an LTI Grant. You can find more information about our funding schemes and other projects in our dedicated pages.

Strand 1: Innovation in Teaching and Learning

InteractivityGustav Meibauer and Andreas Aagaard Nohr, Department of International Relations – Development of PowerPoint-Based Simulation Games for Use in Undergraduate Teaching

“This project will design and implement three PowerPoint-based interactive simulations for use in introductory undergraduate classes. Currently available solutions are targeted at course-long activities, at a high cost of time and preparation effort for both teachers and students. Instead, this project explicitly aims at providing a low-cost, easily accessible and class-long interactive experience to students to encourage theoretical linkage with own in-class experience in such issue areas as foreign policy, diplomacy, or great power dynamics. “

Kay Inckle, Department of Sociology – The Game of ResearchGamification

“The Game of Research is designed for social science students undertaking a final-year qualitative primary research dissertation. In stage one it is a board game similar to Snakes and Ladders but adapted with additional features to make it research-focused and dependent on skill and discernment rather than luck. Through the game students learn the six essential components for a successful qualitative research project: research question, design/proposal, ethical approval, methods/fieldwork, analysis, writing and referencing. The second stage of the game mimics the board game, but takes place in a virtual platform using students’ actual research projects.”

ПечатьOlga Sobolev, Language Centre – Language Immersion in a Self-Study Mode: Revision e-Course

“A new self-study revision e-course, promoting students’ proficiency in spoken and aural Russian through autonomous learning […]  This is very much a student-centred initiative:

  • The course is geared specifically to the syllabus covered in the Russian Language and Society Course throughout the year.
  • It will offer a valuable alternative to teaching contact hours that are not available to students throughout the Easter break, to back up and enhance their revision/preparation for the exams in the ST.”

machine-writingTobias Pester, Department of International History – Sustainable Autorship with Academic Markdown

“I am proposing to develop, document, and teach a Workshop for Sustainable Authorship for students of the LSE that familiarizes and equips them with the writing environment of Academic Markdown. […] One, it provides the automatic generation of references and bibliographies. Two, it relies on the single most sustainable file format since the invention of computers: human-readable plain text. Three, it is platform independent: the most basic text editor available on any operating system will do. Four, it does not rely on proprietary software.”

Read Tobias’ post on his experience with Academic Markdown

DigitalArchiveSusan Scott, Department of Management – Using Digital Innovation to Curate a Living History of Uber and Uberisation

“This project will explore the usefulness of establishing and curating an open access digital ‘living’ archive to support problem-based learning about contemporary topics in global business management particularly (but not only) reconfiguring business models and service innovation. With help from LTI we will create an open access archive populated with a selection of material to date about the American international transportation network company Uber and the phenomenon known as “Uberization” ”

Strand 2: e-Assessment

Edgar Whitley, Department of Management – Using Mahara: Blogging, Peer Review and PeerReview
Feedback

“The aim of the project is to assess the suitability of the Mahara platform as a means of student assessment, feedback and peer review for courses within the School.”

Strand 3: Students as Producers 

Filming2Jennifer Jackson-Preece, European Institute – Narrating the Death (and Life?) of Multiculturalism

“EU 458 Identity, Community & the ‘Problem’ of Minorities ends with a student debate on the ‘Death of Multiculturalism’. Instead of group presentations, the initiative would ask students to work in small groups (3-4) over a 2-3 week period to produce a short (5 minute) film narrating their take on this theme. The films would be screened in LT week 11, and a general debate / discussion would follow on from them.”

February 22nd, 2016|Announcements, Assessment, Ed-Tech news and issues, innovation, LTI Grant Winners, LTI Grants, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Technology in Teaching and Learning: Newest Projects from LSE Staff|

Students and digital literacy: have your say!

Student Ambassadors for Digital Literacy (SADL) is an exciting programme of workshops for LSE undergraduates to develop their digital and information skills in areas such as finding and evaluating information, using technology and apps for academic study, managing and sharing information and managing their digital footprint. The programme’s feature most favoured by all Ambassadors to date is how to manage a digital identity as it has shown to have a great impact on their employability. Find out more by listening to Ambassadors talking about their experiences. We have 45 students from across the school taking part in this exciting programme of workshops this year.

The programme is led by LTI and the Library and the team includes 9 Senior Ambassadors, who completed the programme in previous years and help to teach the programme. The Seniors are also leading three projects to investigate the following questions:

  • How can we improve learning spaces at LSE – both virtual and physical?
  • How can we improve assessment and feedback at LSE and what role does technology play?
  • How can students provide peer support for each other?

We need your help and this is your opportunity to have your say! Over the coming month the ambassadors will be carrying out some research to answer these questions, which may include asking you to fill in a survey or take part in a short interview! If you are approached by a SADL student, then please help them out! And if you want to find out more about the programme and see what they have been up to then visit our blog. The findings from the three projects will be presented to staff and other students at the SADL Celebration event which will be held in the Students Union on 16th March. If you would like to contribute to any of the projects then please email Sonia Gomes (s.gomes@lse.ac.uk)

January 26th, 2016|Announcements, Assessment, Digital Literacy, Learning Spaces, Tools & Technologies|Comments Off on Students and digital literacy: have your say!|

The LSE Language Centre Project Day

To celebrate the success of various teaching and research projects, the Language Centre hosted a Project Day on Friday 18th September. Several LSE Language Co-ordinators presented their experiences of experimenting with innovative technologies in language learning. The Day provided the opportunity to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of online learning systems, the merits of e-marking, and the ways in which video production can aid language learning.

Lang1

Dr.Peter Skrandies: Reading for Academic Purposes with Annotated Texts

The Day started with Dr Peter Skrandies (Language Co-ordinator: German) offering his views on how the online annotation of texts can assist traditional teaching methods. The benefits of this online learning system were clear to many Project Day attendees. The online annotation of texts by language teachers can compensate for limited contact hours. It also complements the learning objectives of in class activities. The development and use of the Moodle-integrated annotation tool was made possible through an LTI innovation grant and that the software  tool was developed by Steve Bond from LTI.

On the other hand, one attendee suggested that this teaching method may only be appropriate for higher ability students. Dr Skrandies’ presentation reminds us that the use of online learning systems is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution.

In the context of UK Higher Education, language teachers often find it difficult to develop students’ grammar skills. Limited class teaching time and the pressure to develop communicative skills are just two of the challenges which language teachers face. In order to overcome these obstacles, Dr Lijing Shi (Assistant Language Co-ordinator: Mandarin) introduced Chinese Online Self-assessment (COS). COS is defined as a dynamic assessment that aims to assess potential for learning. It does not provide a static indication of achievement. COS carries a particular advantage. It enables teachers to quickly pinpoint gaps in students’ learning:

‘From my experience with level 5, COS is the quickest way for me to identify the problems students have in grammar or common mistakes made. I can then focus on specific areas of teaching to sort out these problems.’  Hongyi Xin, Co-ordinating Language Teacher (Mandarin)

Lang2

Dr. Catherine Xiang: From ‘Current Affairs in Mandarin’ to ‘Students as Producers’, Catherine Xiang

As was the case with Dr Skrandies’ project, COS has certain drawbacks. The potential for technical hitches is problematic. Instead of focusing on language learning, Mandarin teachers may attend to the technical maintenance of COS, or liaise with IT services, when they could otherwise be planning seminar activities.

Towards the end of the Project Day, Dr Catherine Xiang (Language Co-ordinator: Mandarin) presented her project, titled ‘From Current Affairs in Mandarin to Students as Producers’. Dr Xiang emphasised the specific benefits of video production. Past students of Mandarin have produced short videos which allow them to focus on a topic related to the social sciences. However, these shorts film, interviews and documentaries are all conducted in Mandarin. The production of a TV style interview or short film provided students with the opportunity to gain confidence. By listening to their interview responses, students determined how much progress they have made. They could highlight areas for improvement, including pronunciation and grammar. However, Project Day attendees noted that this non-traditional form of learning was time consuming.

The final project was presented by Dr Xiang and Lourdes Hernandez-Martin Language Co-ordinator (Arabic) and Co-ordinator for Spanish Projects. They discussed their experimentation with e-marking. Approximately 60 participants (students and teachers) contributed to a pilot scheme. Programmes such as ‘iAnnotate’ and ‘Snagit’ were used. The benefits of using e-marking software were manifold. Students noted that having video and audio evaluation added clarity.

Assessed pieces of work could even be used for revision purposes:

“Video – it’s much better to hear something directly rather than having to try and work things out from comments or notes written down. Also allows things to be explained much more easily – you can learn from home, rather than having to come in for office hours.”

“The video feedback is very helpful especially for language courses because often ‘word’ feedback is not enough to understand grammatical mistakes. Besides, you can replay it for revision”.

On the other hand, e-marking carries certain complications. The ability to readily edit and review comments may incentivise teachers to add unnecessary advice which, ironically enough, may confuse students.

As the four projects discussed above demonstrate, use of language learning technology is not always a move in the right direction. Nevertheless, teaching staff at the LSE Language Centre continue to experiment with technology which can provide a diversified learning experience. Tailored according to individual teacher needs, technological innovations can significantly improve the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages in higher education.

 

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For more information on how LTI Grants can help your projects or to see what projects we have helped visit our Grants page on the blog.

LTI have just closed the first Grants call of the year however a second call will be announced in the near future.

January 19th, 2016|Assessment, Events & Workshops (LTI), innovation, LTI Grant Winners, LTI Grants, Student projects|Comments Off on The LSE Language Centre Project Day|

‘Assessment and Feedback with technology’ project 2014/15

Over the academic year 2014/15 LTI have led several projects  in order to try and improve assessment practices with technology at LSE.

The following are the outcomes of the work carried out as part of the assessment and feedback with technology project:

Research

e-Assessment Practice at Russell Group Universities report Read e-Assessment Practice at Russell Group Universities report

A survey distributed to Russell Group universities to identify level of engagement with e-Assessment practice and factors conductive and critical to e-Assessment engagement.

Assessment and Feedback with technology at LSE report Read Assessment and Feedback with Technology at LSE report – please request a copy of the report.
Interviews with LSE Departments were carried out to identify the level of engagement with e-Assessment practice and understand the factors that encourage participation as well as barriers involved in this regard.

Pilots

A series of pilots with various departments to explore pedagogical benefits of assessment and feedback with technology 

Government e-assessment Pilot study report Read GV100 e-Assessment pilot study
Government (GV100)
Characteristics:
Timed, on-campus invigilated and typed formative exam, followed by online Self/Peer review and face-to-face Student-Teacher feedback
Technologies used: Exam4, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), Moodle-TurnItIn (TII) PeerMark
Law e-assessment Pilot study report Read Law e-assessment pilot study
Law (LL205 & LL4K9)
Characteristics:
Timed, take-home and typed formative mock exam
Technologies used: ExamSoft
LSE100 portfolio assessment Pilot study
Read LSE100 portfolio assessment pilot study
LSE100
Characteristics:
e-portfolio for summative assessment
Technologies used: Moodle assignment
Moodle- TII integration Pilots  

Read Moodle-TII integration pilots report
Moodle – TurnItIn integration

  • Statistics (ST327)
    Characteristics: Originality checking
    Technologies used: Moodle-TII integration
  • Philosophy (PH400 & PH201)
    Characteristics: Originality checking, TII GradeMark
    Technologies used: Moodle-TII integration, ipads
  • Media and Communications (MC425 & MC419)
    Characteristics: Originality checking, TII GradeMark
    Technologies used: Moodle-TII integration
  • Government (GV100)
    Characteristics: TII PeerMark
    Technologies used: Moodle-TII integration

DECISIONS MADE for Moodle-TII integration: Where the Moodle-TII integration worked, the feedback was largely positive.  In the instances where the integration did not fully work, the issues identified were significant and cannot be ignored.  In most cases, workarounds provided solutions; however as a result of the relative uncertainty associated with the functionality of the plug-in, LTI will not scale Moodle-TII integration but continue supporting the integration in the form of pilots.  As such, the plug-in will be made available upon request to those who want to use it (i.e. teachers will have an opportunity of requesting the plug-in from LTI for any given Moddle course(s)).

If you want to take part in Phase 2 of Moodle-TII integration (i.e. use the plug-in for your Moodle course(s)) please email us on lti.support@lse.ac.uk

Visit our Moodle site for details of the Moodle-TII integratin phase 2, database of issues identifies and participating pilot users

LTI Grants

The following LTI Grant projects are related to e-Assessment. Find out more about the LTI Grants (e-Assessment innovation strand) and  LTI Grant winners or apply for an LTI Grant.

  • The social construction of human rights violations: e-Bricolage project,
    Pete Manning, Department of Sociology
    Use of peer assessment for an e-bricolage project, using resources produced for exam preparation and essay preparation.
  • From E-marking to E-feedback: training, applying and evaluation,
    Catherine Xiang & Lourdes Hernández-Martín, Language Centre
    Exploring new ways of marking and giving feedback (Moodle, iPads+annotation apps, Snagit).
  • Integrating offline marking and online moodle feedback using iPads,
    Ellen Helsper, Media & Communication
    Teachers using iPads and the Moodle-Turnitin integration to mark and give feedback on formative coursework (uploaded by students on Moodle).
  • Global perspectives via documentary and peer-assessment,
    Catherine Xiang, Language Centre
    Use of videos in continuous assessment with peer review of the documentaries created  – fully embedded in the continuous assessment.
  • Using film in urban planning analysis,
    Nancy Holman, Geography
    Creations of short interpretative films along with written work and presentation following fieldwork. The student produced films are formatively assessed by a panel of staff in the department. The films are part of the presentation students make at the end of the course.
  • Moodle-based group assessment for regression analysis using the R software,
    Sarah Geneletti, Statistics
    A project looking into replacing written report with a three part assessment: i)R Script ii) stats Moodle quiz iii)Moodle quiz report based on the analyses.
  • Electronic marking and feedback with iPads (Phase II)
    Lourdes Hernandez-Martin & Mercedes Coca, Language Centre
    Explore iPad apps to improve assessment and feedback

Guidelines

The following guidelines were produced to cover needs of innovative practic:

Testing and evaluation of technologies and tools

October 30th, 2015|Assessment, eAssessment Events, eAssessment News, innovation, LTI Grants, Reports & Papers, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies|Comments Off on ‘Assessment and Feedback with technology’ project 2014/15|

New features for Moodle

Moodle

 

Moodle was upgraded to version 2.7 as part of the reset process.  The changes to Moodle are minimal and can be seen below along with some features of Moodle that you may not be aware of.

 

 Changes to Moodle

New text editor
Atto is the new default text editor in Moodle from version 2.7 onwards.  Clicking the top left icon (highlighted in red below) will expand it to three rows.

The previous text editor (‘TinyMCE’ shown below) contains additional font style settings and the paste from word button.  If you prefer the old editor you can select the TinyMCE as your default text editor from your profile settings.Tiny MCE editor

Go to Administration > My Profile settings > Edit profile.

Then select ‘TinyMCE html editor’ from the drop down list for Text editor, then click ‘update profile’.

Improvements to Quizzes
2.7 sees the introduction of new features to quiz question banks, including question duplication, moving questions and save changes and continue editing buttons.  The essay question now allows students to add an attachment with no accompanying text.

Improvements to assignments
Teachers can now comment directly on students work when they submit via online text.

Some features you may not be aware of:

Turnitin plugin

This plugin allows work to be submitted automatically to Turnitin, ( the plagiarism checking software ) directly from the assessment activity.  Teachers can then mark and give feedback using the Turnin GradeMark features.  If enabled students can also see their originality reports and use this information for plagiarism prevention training.

Student view of turnitin submission

 

 

 

 

This feature is being enabled to individual courses on request.  For more information about using this tool or to take part in a pilot please contact LTI.Support@lse.ac.uk or see the Moodle-Turnitin Integration Moodle page.

Activity completion

This can be set up to record the completion of various activities in your course.  A check (tick) Checkbox imageappears    against the activity when the student meets the criteria you have set (e.g. viewing an activity, submitting an assignment, or passing an assignment).

Activity completion

 

 

Once you have set up your assessments with activity completion details you can then set up the completion details for the whole course. Go to ‘course completion’ in the administration block and, select ‘Course is complete when all conditions are met’ and then select all activities to be completed.

You can then access a quick view to see if students have completed the activities in your course by going into ‘Administration’, > ‘Reports’, > ‘Course completion’.

Activity completion report2

 

 

 

 

 

This report can be filtered by course group or student name.

You can also allow students to view if they have completed each activity according to the settings chosen.

Student view of activity completion

To find out more details on how to use these features or if you have any other Moodle queries contact LTI.Support@lse.ac.uk

September 8th, 2015|Assessment, eAssessment News, Moodle, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies, Uncategorized|Comments Off on New features for Moodle|

How effective are e-Marking and e-Feedback?

Catherine Hua Xiang

There are numerous methods and tools to mark and provide feedback using technology. Catherine Hua Xiang and Lourdes Hernandez-Martin from LSE’s Language Centre run an LTI-funded project* aimed at ‘exploring and comparing three distinctive e-marking methods and e-feedback as a result of three marking tools’

Lourdes Hernandez-Martin

More than 20 members of staff at the Language Centre were offered training on using Moodle, iPads with e-pens and Snagit to mark and provide feedback on students’ written work. They applied the three different marking methods to the same group of students throughout the academic year on different pieces of work (usually long essays).

They were then asked to write a reflective diary on the impact of these methods on the way they mark while students answered a survey to explore their perception of video and written feedback. The findings demonstrated a clear preference for video feedback using Snagit, which Catherine and Lourdes explained by providing the following reasons:

  1. Linguistic enhancement – Students have found being able to listen to teacher’s correct helps both pronunciation as well as overall listening skills.
  2. Personal approach – Students preferred the personal approach of a video feedback as it creates the style which is most similar to a face to face interaction. The teacher’s voice helps engage the students.
  3. Quality of the feedback – Students have commented on the details that verbal feedback could offer as opposed to the written feedback.
  4. Others – Students also commented on the usefulness of having both – the fact that they can come back and listen to the feedback at any time they wishes. It offers great materials for revision purposes.

“It is very helpful having the teacher guide me through the corrections as it is more personal and can allow me to see not just what is wrong but why it is wrong

“It’s much better to hear something directly rather than having to try and work things out from comments or notes written down”

“you can learn from home, rather than having to come in for office hours”

 

Snagit

Snagit Features

 

* From e-Marking to e-Feedback: Training, Applying and Evaluation, project funded by a Learning Technology and Innovation Grant. You can also find some information and updates on this project in the LSE Language Centre website.